Not Anthrax! :)

I was really really sick for most of last week. I probably should have set off the biohazard detectors for trying to drag myself into work Tuesday morning. I haven't had body aches so bad since my umpteen-hours of marathon back labor with Eli. I actually went to the doctor Weds but she was stumped. The flu test came back negative, the rapid strep test was negative. She started talking about "Mono-mimickers" and all sorts of weird diseases that could last weeks. She put me on antibiotics in case I did have one of the 5% of undetected strep cases.
While home sick for 3.5 days and royally screwing my new coworkers on the busiest week ever, what else to do but surf WebMD. The list of possible diseases based on my perplexing assortment of symptoms included inhalation anthrax. I'm not really a hypochondriac, but well, the symptoms matched (well...up until the near-fatal stage) and with no diagnosis it seemed as plausible as anything else with"flu-like symptoms". Ok, I didn't really think I had anthrax, but it was a little disconcerting with no other diagnosis and that just seemed like the bizarre sort of thing that would happen to me. Ironically, two years ago I had to fight to avoid getting the anthrax vaccine.
The doctor finally got the results of the super-duper strep test today and it turns out that is what I had, which explains why the antibiotics actually worked (if I can remember to take them) and I haven't croaked yet. Yay! It's not anthrax! Or any of the other weeks-long illnesses the doctor tossed around. I never thought I'd be so relieved to just have strep throat (which I've never had before). Now let's hope the kids don't get it since I've already burned most of my sick leave - ugh.